


His Princess in White Horse

by Starain (Valgus)



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Drama & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-01 06:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17862287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valgus/pseuds/Starain
Summary: Six years old Sebastian told her about his loneliness, his absence of space in his own family.That mysterious little girl of his age, whom he spent that one summer with, linked her little finger to his. She spoke so closely their nose almost touched, "I'll return to you when I'm adult and successful." Sebastian's initial response was laughter. That was the sort of promise a boy made to his first love, a vow that a prince made to reclaim his princess back one day. But, as some beats passed, Sebastian realised that, perhaps, this was his only chance to not be so alone that his skin crawled; this gentlemanly little girl who would return to him one day, when she's all grown up and wealthy.So he linked his little finger back."Promise me that," whispered little Sebastian, his tiny hands trembling.She looked him back in the eyes, "I promise, Sebastian."





	1. Once Upon A Promise

When this strange new man came into Sebastian's life to claim his mother, he thought he already had it bad enough. Not until Robin told her son that she was expecting with Demetrius' child that Sebastian learned what seemed to be a hard lesson of his childhood; that he didn't really had any place in that family but some sort of residue of Robin's old relationship.

Sebastian was lost at a very young age. He felt like he had no place in the world and started to cease any form of social relationship with other people. Sam and Abby stayed, but perhaps that was because they were also some sort of outcast like him as well.

But Sebastian remembered a single moment when he was sure he gripped a firm place in this world.

He was probably six when he met another child, a little girl whose name he never obtained. 

She was suddenly there on a summer holiday, on her jeans and shirt, and a sparkling eyes underneath rattan hat with sunflowers on it. They observed summer bugs together and played countless times on the beach. When rain fell, Sebastian taught her about frogs of the valley.

Then she had to leave. Then Sebastian told her about his loneliness, his absence of space in his own family. 

She linked her little finger to his, then spoke so closely their nose almost touched, "I'll return to you when I'm adult and successful." Sebastian's initial response was laughter. That was the sort of promise a boy made to his first love, a vow that a prince made to reclaim his princess back one day. But as some beats passed, Sebastian realised that perhaps this was his only chance to not be so alone that his skin crawled; this gentlemanly little girl who would return to him one day, when she's all grown up and wealthy.

So he linked his little finger back.

"Promise me that," whispered little Sebastian, his tiny hands trembling. 

She looked him back in the eyes, "I promise, Sebastian."

But then she disappeared as summer faded and Sebastian was once again alone. It wasn't the first sort of betrayal life shoved into his face. Her mother had somehow abandoned him once, even though she probably didn't really mean to. At least she let him stay. At least he still received her love and attention.

But the little girl never returned. 

And perhaps she would never return.

Sebastian silently accepted his defeat and slowly, but carefully, retreated to his shell, to inside the wall he had built around his heart and soul. 

***

A woman in dress shirt and pencil skirt sat in her cubicle on a Joja Office. She stared at the number of her bank's balance and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. It wasn't enough, she thought, but she didn't feel like she could hold on longer. The letter her grandfather left was peeking underneath the pile of documents on her table.

She wondered whether the boy in the valley still waited for her.

If she were to return to that valley, claim her first love, and leave this orderly, adult world behind, the very world she had worked very hard on to be part of, that would be the silliest thing she could ever do in her supposedly structured life.

But a promise is a promise, she pondered as she remembered the little boy's dark, lost eyes.

She took her grandfather's letter, left her desk, and never returned.

For a promise is a promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hasn't been proofread and possibly another random Sebastian/Female Player story I created on a whim, simply because I was bitten by plot bunny.
> 
> I take suggestion for the Female Player's name, if anyone wanted to suggest any.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


	2. The Steel Horse and The Reunion

Sitting alone in an almost empty flat, the ex-Joja Office worker thought she'd feel empty. Instead, she felt relaxed and free. She would leave this flat and this city tomorrow morning, bringing only two suitcases and a backpack. As she slept on a couch that would no longer be hers after that night, she dreamt of a lush valley, its frogs, and a boy whose smile so precious, for she knew that he didn't smile much.

How would he look like now? She wondered.

For she didn't even had any picture of him.

***

Sebastian had no photograph of her, the little girl who, once upon a time, promised to sweep him off his feet.

She existed now only in his head, where she occupied a space and perhaps would permanently stayed there.

His motorcycle, Sebastian realised several years later after owning it, was one of the thing he added into his life with his 'princess' in mind. She returned to her distant city, so the motorcycle became the gap between him, in the valley, to her, in the city. If she didn't come, he could be the 'prince' and came to her instead. But he couldn't even recall her name for he never asked. With fresh wound of being set aside by his own mother, Little Sebastian tried not to form any bond with that little girl by asking her name. She didn't seem to mind. It was a strange thing to think about now, decades later, when Sebastian finally grew up. Why didn't he simply asked her name? But he supposed the little him, the six years old Sebastian, did strange things back then. He still did strange things now.

But nothing was going to change just because he kept her alive in his memories, Sebastian repeatedly scolded himself.

Sometimes, someone's chapter in your story ended and they never returned.

Just like his father, so did his first love.

***

Spring returned to the valley once again.

Sebastian's underground bedroom was warmer that morning as he opened his eyes up to the same old ceilings. He just woke up from a dream. A dream of warmth and a woman whose face he couldn't see. A woman who linked her little finger's to his, as she muttered the promise Sebastian still clung to. He woke up feeling suffocated, unsure whether it was from happiness or heavy weight of sadness. Nothing in the valley ever changed but the season. Except the arrival of Joja Company a couple of years ago, nothing had changed. Neither did he. Feeling his breath shallowed, Sebastian quickly left his bed, scrambling for his black hoodie before the heat he obtained underneath his blanket disappeared.

He met his Robin by the kitchen. She was saying something about greeting someone who was coming in town, taking Lewis' place for a starter.

Sebastian only thought as much as of a  _What a strange time of the year for the Governor to come to the valley._

*** 

The Governor didn't came to the valley.

Instead, a new farmer moved in to the old ruin of farmhouse by the other side of the mountain. The majority of the valley's residents were fairly excited by the farmer's arrival, but Sebastian's only response was a spiteful thought, for nothing would change by the arrival of this so-called farmer. He resumed his spring by locking himself up on his basement, working his part-time job like always, and wondered about why anyone was dumb enough to go to this terribly uninteresting remote valley. No one really talked about the farmer's financial situation, but considering the fact that everyone talked about how hard the farmer worked, the farmer was probably not rich.

Ergo, this newcomer was not that very person who had promised she would return for him.

Sebastian felt awful by being somewhat unreasonably hostile towards this new character in the valley, but he knew he was hurt. Someone came and it wasn't her. She probably forgot about him already. It had been so long. She probably had married by now and live in a cool flat like cool city people in his age do. But the true fool wasn't his first love nor the new farmer. It was him. It was Sebastian who still clung into an old promise for so long. He did a line of thought answering question  _What if this newcomer is actually the person who promised you all those years ago?_ But, if she was, she'd come to him already, not as a struggling farmer, but in a nice car and a key to a cool flat that soon would be theirs.

The longer he thought about the idea, the sillier it became. How pathetic he could be to expect someone would save him, mentally and financially, just because of a distant promise in his childhood? In the end, he brushed the thought entirely, and went on with his life, that was honestly not any better than these tiny, hopeful daydreams.

***

Asleep, a week after her arrival at this lush, remote valley, the farmer dreamed.

In her dream, the little boy with dark hair and sad eyes had grown up into an adult, just like her. But the man she saw in her dream was sitting alone in the darkness, curling his body, his face on his knees. He lifted his face as she stepped closer. His eyes were still deep, sad colour of night. He reached out her hand towards his silently weeping figure. His cheek was damp and cold. His jaw was subtly prickly from being unshaven. 

The little sad boy had grown into a sad man.

 _Please_ , he said, his voice like an echo, _You_ must _save me_. 

She woke up, gasping. The thought of the plea on her dream followed her even after she took care of her rows of parsnip.

***

It was the middle of Spring's second week when Sebastian ventured to the farmland by the far west end of the mountain. Abby liked to go here for some adventure and sometimes Sam and Sebastian joined her. He smoked, watching the cloudy sky above him, and walked past the abandoned bus stop before the farm. It was sometime after lunch. Sebastian gave himself the last break before he finished the project he currently freelanced on, for the deadline was the next day.

As he reached the end of that tiny road, he was hit by the sight of the farmer working, even though he already knew that the farmland was no longer uninhabited by human.

Sebastian couldn't recall whether anyone had actually spoke about the gender of this new farmer. He always assumed it was a man, but now that Sebastian saw her figure from behind, as she lifted stones and branches from the ground, she was definitely not a man. Sebastian just stood there, finishing his cigarette, when she noticed his figure and shouted, "I'll be right there with you!" She was smiling, probably thinking that he was one of the villagers who came to greet her or bring her help.

But then she jogged closer to him and something on the pit of Sebastian's stomach dropped.

Almost two and half decades later, she stood there, in front of him; a pair of brown eyes under a hat. It was no rattan hat with bright sunflower decoration, but it was a simple baseball cap, worn simply to aid her eyes from constant harsh sunlight. 

Her mouth was hanging open. Sebastian couldn't process her widening eyes, her raised eyebrows, and her rapid blinking. His brain was far too busy with matching the face he stared at with his 'princess'' face.

It was her, no matter how much he blinked his own eyes. It was the same face, the same eyebrows, hair colour, nose, lips, and ear; only older.

"Sebastian," she gasped.

A beat later, her cheeks tinged with red and she bit her lower lip, her gaze softened and it seemed like she couldn't contain her smile.

 _Oh no_ , Sebastian thought, with something that felt like the biggest happiness in his life he was positively scared.  _She still thinks about me all these years and has indeed return to this valley for_ me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for **ArtemisKogane** , **Solli7** , **Chibi_Liz05** , and **SierraSeas** for leaving comments on the previous chapter. I apologise for not being able to reply them, but they make me so happy. As for the name for the farmer, I still haven't revealed it yet on this chapter, but I take both of ArtemisKogane's and Chibi_Liz05's (I adore _Pride and Prejudice_ as well!) suggestion. SierraSeas' idea is quite interesting too, but by the time I received the comment I already developed a subplot on the farmer's name and planted it on the story. I suppose you'll see her name as this story unfold.
> 
> Frankly, I'm not exactly satisfied with this chapter, but I want to get our protagonists together before the Spring ends. (I believe I also have tendency of not being able to finish a story if I simmer some development too long.)
> 
> Last but not least, thank you for reading this chapter.


	3. Wind on Our Hairs

Sebastian knew he would never forget that afternoon for the rest of his life.

He shall always remember the way cool spring wind blew his face and her hair, the way sunrise illuminate the freshly spouting plants on the ground around them, and the thin colour of brown around the dark, dilated pupils upon the face he was staring at.  _She's here!_ was the first thought Sebastian had upon seeing her, the new farmer who was also his first love and the very person who, once upon a time, promise him some sort of fairy tale kind of happy ending. Reality then seeped into him like cold water upon hot iron.  _I don't even know her name_ was his second thought.

But she was there, barely able to contain her smile.

Meanwhile, Sebastian didn't seem to be able to do anything else but breathing shakily as he gazed into her eyes.

There was something so magical about their silent exchange. Sebastian looked into those brown eyes and knew that he would be  _safe_ there. He could gaze into her and she would gaze into him back, that she'd stay even after she saw the entirety of his soul. The realisation hit Sebastian so hard he was stunned, frozen, and pinned where he stood. He had no idea how much he missed her, how much he had waited for this moment to finally arrive...

The farmer did a reluctant shrug, still smiling, and peering up at his eyes in very apparent shy gesture.

Neither of them seemed to know what to do.

So they did nothing and everything at once, it seemed.

Realising that he hadn't reply her short-breathed call of his name, Sebastian raised his hand awkwardly and waved to her, "Um, hi."

Her eyes lit up and her smile bloomed, "Hi, Sebastian!" 

She sounded very much like he felt; hopeful, excited, and indescribably happy.

***

The flushed faced farmer then invited Sebastian for a drink inside the farmhouse, for she needed a break, anyway. As they drank iced tea under the shade by the farmhouse's porch, Sebastian muttered about how he never asked for her name. Prepared for a nasty remark of 'How could you?' or 'Yeah, that was really low of you', the farmer simply laughed so hard her eyes watered. Sebastian was left to enjoy her free, braying laughter.

She eventually wiped tears of laughter from her eyes and said, "Yeah, you didn't ask. It was a bit weird, I guess, even when we were six, but... well... we were six."

She laughed again and this time Sebastian joined her.

"I mean, frogs seemed super duper cool back then!" she gestured wildly with her hands. "But now if we observed frogs again we would just look like two weirdos in the rain. Time robbed so much from us, don't you think, Sebastian?"

"I suppose so," Sebastian looked at her, still wanting to know her name.

She seemed to read his mind, because she then offered her hand to him, "Ah, it's Connie, by the way. My name is Connie, Sebastian. It's nice to meet you."

Sebastian grinned, "You know, you do look like a Connie back then—and even now."

"What does that mean?" Connie—Sebastian was painfully relieved to be able put a name on her from now on—made a mock offended face.

"Moving to valley and becoming farmer? That's not something a Samantha would do!"

They laughed again together, just like when they ended up falling on the beach together long time ago; freely and recklessly, despite knowing that later the adults would scold them for getting their clothes wet and sandy.

Then Connie talked about her life a bit after high school. It was college and then corporate job. She also told him, after considerable silence in which she seemed to prepare herself for the very important talk, that she still held on to their promise the entire time.

"I always want to go back to Stardew Valley. But I haven't make enough. Not to mention I still have my student debt," Connie sighed, her expression darkened. It was not a good look on her, Sebastian pouted. He decided, very childishly, that money was bad for making this lovely person so pressured. "It took me so long to return here... and I still don't have enough money."

 _But you came back, Connie,_ Sebastian thought, not game enough to voice his feeling out loud just yet.  _You came back for me and it made me happier than if you just send me a pile of money through post._

"You still don't speak a lot, do you, Sebastian?" she grinned merrily and he found himself smiling back. She wasn't mocking him the way that some people took his silence negatively. 

He nodded and shrugged and she smiled understandingly and he was so happy he could melt. Sebastian wanted to keep looking at her, to burn the sight of her current look into his memory. At the same time, confirming that she was indeed there next to him, smiling and talking to him, was too much. Torn between these two desires, Sebastian ended up shifting his gaze to the farmland before them and to her.

As Sebastian only remembered the little generic girl with brown eyes and brown hair, he found her growth surprising. He wouldn't say that she was terribly pretty he got nervous—mind you, he was nervous enough considering she was his first love—but there was something touching in a way that her eyes crinkle when she smiled, the faint freckles on her face, and the way her slightly messy hair fell around her face. She was so beautiful, so real in her own way. Perhaps, he lived too long with beautiful memories of her already.

Now that she returned and she still had the same beautiful soul, it was simply impossible for him to not find her utterly charming to the point that he felt drunk.

***

Connie was simply over the moon, even though all she did was sitting there and drinking iced tea in her grandfather's old farmhouse. 

Of course, the very reason why everything was so special right now sat beside her, bigger and taller than the little boy in her memory. The fact that that tiny boy with messy dark hair had grown into this adult man was still hitting her. Connie had a hard time to wrap her head around it, but there he was, there Sebastian was, alive, well, happy to see him, and seemed as happy as her to be here. She watched his face and his expression carefully. Sebastian's forehead wrinkled underneath his row of dark fringes when he talked or gestured and Connie found it so dear. She had missed the teenager Sebastian and now they both had left their twenties, too late to have first loves, promises of kingdom, and fairy tales.

But they were there, together, and they had all the time in the world to catch up; to talk about where would they like to go with a promise once she made to him.

She wanted to kiss him, she thought bashfully as her gaze hanging on to his face, his equally shy expression, his overall somehow clumsy gesture. But there would be time for that, she thought, tightening her fingers around the end of her farming T-shirt.

The wind blew again on that farmland, quiet but for the whoosh and faint forest sound, and everything was well and right.

***

Sebastian and Connie spent the rest of the day catching up. Twenty five years are a very long time to be apart.

Sebastian never left the valley, he told Connie. He had his time outside this little circle of community for high school with Sam and Abby, but that was about it. He didn't go to college and ended up using his programming skill, a skill he taught himself, to do freelance work for paying rent to his mother and caring for his motorcycle. There was some spending for night out at the city, cigarette, and a lot of money went to geeky stuffs like comic and movie. 

("Not frogs?" Connie asked, grinning, one eyebrow raised.

"Not quite, no," Sebastian shook his head and tried to elbow her.

They were really into frogs in that two months they spent together that summer.)

Connie went through similar path in her life in the city; high school, college, and corporate job. She mentioned about how past high school she already took gap year, wanting to return to Stardew Valley, but stopped after considering that she was too young and how her high school diploma couldn't make big money. She went to college, slightly older than her still teen friends, and had great time studying communication. Connie told Sebastian about all crazy things she did at college, all the parties, all the dark moments in which she found herself drunk and still think about the valley, about whether college ever guaranteed high income later in the future. She talked about the breakdown she had after college, how she knew a lot of people suffered from not having purpose but to work past college, and about how she found it extremely tempting to simply chuck the city life aside and go here. 

But she stayed, trying to make money, and ended up miserably stuck to a cubicle in Joja Office. 

"... Then I looked at Gramp's letter, about how one day I'll feel like weight of life will crush down upon me, and here I am now," she shrugged, red in the face. She had said so many personal, vulnerable thing, and she was terribly scared. Perhaps, then Sebastian would think that she was indeed a failure, like the awful voice that sometimes whispered things in her head. Connie peered up at him, amazed at the sight of thirty-something Sebastian, brooding, dark, and incredibly lovely at the same time.

Sebastian didn't say anything immediately. Connie saw him blinking, shifting on his seat, before finally exhaled, "Your life sounded much more decorated than me already, to be honest, Connie. Do you think I had great time, great life, and great story after being stuck here for almost three decades? I don't think so."

His self depreciating comment saddened her, but then he leaned to her slowly.

Connie had missed this. She had missed that certain feeling when she was so close to Sebastian that she could see all the black strands of his eyelashes.

"Is it safe to say that both of us are somehow shipwrecks? But everyone I know is shipwrecks in their own ways, anyway. So..." he gulped, eyeing her in a way that made it seem like he was pleading, "So don't talk about your life so far so unkindly. You're alright. We're alright. You did your best. Well, even if you didn't, you're here. You..." something flickered behind Sebastian's rather watery eyes, "... You came back for me. You fulfilled your promise, albeit partially. You're here. You're here and I have a feeling you have no idea how much that means for me."

Sebastian smiled. It was a wobbly, awkward kind of smile, but Connie smiled too.

She fulfilled her first part of the promise.

Unable to contain how much Sebastian's words touched her feeling, she put her arms around his chest in a rather hasty hug. To her surprise, Sebastian, who initially froze for a beat, then laughed that low, warm laughter, then hugged her back. His arms were now so much bigger, so much longer, so much older... Connie squeezed him a bit harder and Sebastian did too. As she sat there in his arms, she made a resolve to herself.

 _I must make successful career out of this farm,_ she committed to herself, feeling the heat of Sebastian's body and the faint smell of cigarette on his hoodie.  _I must—for the promise had a second part I must fulfil._

***

As the day ended, Sebastian knew he must go home. They left the porch reluctantly and hugged again by the farmland's exit on the north. Sebastian could feel Connie squeezing him, but not as hard as the way he squeezed him, for she yelped and chuckled, "That hurts a bit, Sebastian. I might be bigger than the frogs of the valley, but you can't just squeeze me with your full power." Sebastian laughed at that. A couple of hours with Connie and he believe he already laughed more than he laughed in a year. He squeezed her a little bit more carefully this time. The scent of sun and soil had slowly vanished from her skin as the sun set.

They both pulled back, smiling, blushing, and Sebastian wanted to do so much more things than hugging. 

"I have a project deadline tomorrow," he muttered regretfully. "But you're very much welcome to visit my room, Connie."

Her eyes lit up and Sebastian felt like he owned the universe.

"I'll come sometime after lunch, Sebastian" she said. She lifted her pinky finger and he raised his.

They intertwined their fingers, smiled at each other, and laughed together, feeling like they had left the earth and lived in a reality that was entirely theirs. After some more reluctant 'I'll see you tomorrow!', 'See ya!', 'Have a safe trip home, Sebastian!', 'I live literally just around the corner, Connie!', 'Still, I want you to be safe!' as the distance between them grew. Then, with one last wave of his hand, Sebastian heavy heartedly turned right towards his house.

His mother always talked about how lucky they were to live in such a beautiful valley. That evening, as he looked up to the row of trees, grass, and valley hugged by the colour of burning iron, Sebastian finally understood what she meant.

Stardew Valley was indeed a magically enchanting place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For **Phoenixwolfgirl** , **soapydopey** , **Solli7** , **ArtemisKogane** , and **Chibi_Liz05** , who had commented on the second chapter; thank you! I really appreciate your doings. To everyone who left kudos and reading this chapter as well, cheers and I hope you enjoyed it.


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